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Hall, Kopitar, MacKinnon are 2018 Hart Trophy finalists

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Taylor Hall of the New Jersey Devils, Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings and Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche have been named as the three finalists for the 2018 Hart Trophy, given to “to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team.”

The award, voted on by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, will be handed out on June 20 at the NHL Awards show in Las Vegas.

Hall and MacKinnon are also up for the Ted Lindsay Award, which is given to the “most outstanding player in the regular season” and voted on by members of the NHL Players’ Association.

The Hart Trophy race was an intriguing one this season and narrowing it down to a final three is certainly a tough task. Other than Hall, Kopitar and MacKinnon, you could have made cases for Claude Giroux, Nikita Kucherov, Evgeni Malkin, Connor McDavid, Alex Ovechkin, and maybe even a few more depending on your definition of “value” to ones team.
[NBC’s Stanley Cup Playoff Hub]

The Case for Taylor Hall: The Devils forward finished seventh in goals (39) and sixth in points (93) while helping lead the team to a 27-point improvement and back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in six years. How valuable was Hall to his team? He finished 41 points ahead of teammate Nico Hischier. Among his season highlights included a streak that saw him record a point in 26 consecutive appearances, as well as a 19-game point streak. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Brian Boyle said earlier this month. “It just seems like you’re on the bench and thinking to yourself, ‘We need a play here,’ and he seems to make it every time.”

The Case for Anze Kopitar: Already a Selke Trophy finalist, the Kings forward had an incredible bounce-back season in 2017-18 with career highs in goals (35), assists (57) and points (92). In reaching the 90-point mark, Kopitar became the team’s first player to hit that total since Wayne Gretzky in 1993-94. Like Hall, Kopitar was a big offensive force for LA, finishing 31 points ahead of his next-closest teammate, Dustin Brown, who ended the year with 61 points.

The Case for Nathan MacKinnon: A career season ends with MVP consideration for MacKinnon, who led the Avs with 39 goals and 97 points as they posted a 47-point improvement that ended with a postseason return. Only McDavid (1.32) had a better points per game average than the 22-year-old forward (1.31), who recorded 13 three-point games this season.

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2018 NHL Award finalists
Ted Lindsay Award
Jack Adams Award

Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award
King Clancy Trophy
Calder Trophy

Bill Masterton Trophy
Lady Byng Trophy
Norris Trophy
Selke Trophy
Vezina Trophy

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Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.